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Topic Review (Newest First)

10-19-2012 10:26 PM

Sumner10

Re: Simple electrical panel

Thanks. The panel....

....looks good mounted there and I wouldn't of noticed the cables if you wouldn't of mentioned them,

Yeah the labels are just stuck to the wood over a single coat of stain (I didn't want it darker). However it's in a place that can't accidentally be hit or brushed very easily otherwise I might have given this situation more thought. After one season no problem. These are the bluesea labels I linked earlier.

But it certainly sounds like what you're suggesting would do it. If you were concerned about them falling off you could epoxy them down. I don't mind knowing that I could change them if I wanted.

I'd love to do a custom engine panel this year although it's hard to justify it has a priority when I have leaks and deck issues. But if I did I was considering designing a panel to be professionally printed. The engine panel is different of course because it's outdoors.

Here it is in the boat next to my less successful attempt to adhere cables with hotglue (I think the glue melted when the cabin got hot).

10-19-2012 09:32 PM

Sumner10

Re: Simple electrical panel

Thanks. On the labels are they just stuck onto the wood? We finally got a label gun, but I was thinking that I needed to put the labels on something smoother than wood to be permanent.

I use interior/exterior gloss polyurethane on everything and I guess maybe 3 coats, sand flat and another 2-3 coats would give a good surface for the labels???

Yeah, here are a couple more shots where you should be able to see everything. The labels are Cabin Lights, VHF, Depth Sounder, Accessory (lighter plugs), Unused, Spreader Lights, Anchor light (masthead) if you can't.

The nav/steaming lights are on a DPDT switch so one way just the nav lights come on, the other way both come on. This saves a switch for the steaming lights which I don't need to operate by itself anyway.

As you can see every switch has an indicator LED which is after the fuse. The 12V LED indicates that the panel is powered and the amber charge LED is driven by the bluesea ACR relay (I don't have a shore charger).

I like the panel a lot especially the indicator LED's which are just the right brightness - enough to see during the day but not too bright at night. It's nice having the gauge although it's hard to read accurately where it's positioned on the boat. A digital gauge would have been more practical although I like the look of the analog one. The backlight for the analog gauge and compass are wired to the nav lights. The panel itself is solid stained oak.

10-19-2012 02:19 PM

Sumner10

Re: Simple electrical panel

I can't find just switch panels and called Blue Seas and another place and no one seems to make them. They all have fuses or breakers with each switch and a lot of times still incandescent indicator lighting.

I used the....

...Blue Sea fuse blocks like above in the Mac and I'm also using them in the Endeavour. I basically have each circuit fused with the fuse blocks (12 circuits on the one boat and 18 on the other).

I think it is redundant to go from them to a switch panel that then has another fuse or breaker associated with each switch. I also want LED indicator lights. This means make my own switch panels unless someone can give me a link to reasonably priced switch panels with LED indicators and no breakers/fuses in them.

I reworked our boat completely last winter. Blue Sea panels are simple and well constructed and many of the llarger ones are semi prewired. A long with getting rid of the previous spaghetti wiring , lamp wire, wires wired to apparently no where anymore, the panel gave a nice professional finished look when completed.

I've used some surplus switches on the Mac with no problems so far, but will go with the Blue Sea switches and LED'S on the Endeavour panel. They might be the same, but for just a couple dollars more for a one time purchase I'll go with them. I've been getting them from Defender.

I rewired my boat and built my own panels from Radio Shack project boxes. One thing was that the Blue Sea type panels were not only expensive but also just didn't fit my limited space I had on a smaller boat.
I'd get inexpensive boat fuse panels and then mounted them in the project box front. Sometimes I'd put a hinge on the major boxes so I could get inside easily. The box enabled me to have a wiring panel that was protected on the back side. This was a change to the ABYC standards that I though important. For the more complex circuits the fused circuit on the front of the panel would feed a internal panel with a number of fused circuits. e.g. the navigation fused circuit on the front would feed an panel mounted on the inside of the box. For example the nav fuse on the front fed an internal fuse panel with separately fused VHF, GPS, autohelm etc. The lighting fuse on the front would feed an internal circuit board with 2 separately fused circuits and a nighttime red circuit so that if one circuit blew I wouldn't lose all lighting. What was important was to make up a wiring diagram and use a label maker (got mine at office depot) to put label tags on each wire. I found that I often reduced the depth of the box by cutting it down so it would fit the tight space.
Besides the main panels I also had remote boxes for special purposes e.g. a battery monitoring box for amp meters, volt meter and amp hr. meter; a remote box with fused circuits for my demand water heater, CO sensor and shower water pump; a box fro engine power circuits and the generator regulator. etc.
Making up the boxes also allowed me to use the small Radio Shack colored lights to use for warnings e.g. bilge pump left off, battery banks left cross connected etc.
So maybe I overdid it. But using the project boxes worked for me and gave me a installation I wouldn't have been able to do with off the shelf Blue Sea products.

10-16-2012 07:22 PM

asdf38

Re: Simple electrical panel

I did a bit more digging and don't see a lot of savings to be had. Bluesea sells toggle switches, available from defender for $6.69 each. On digi-key I can find similar switches, rated for 15A for about $5.50. Not a great savings. Bluesea sells indicator Led's for $3, they're $2 on digikey.

McMaster is also a convenient place to get crimp terminals including adhesive lined heat shrink.

10-16-2012 05:12 PM

asdf38

Re: Simple electrical panel

I did my own panel (and the entire rest of the boat) from scratch this spring and was generally thrilled with the results. But I don't think cost is the right reason to do it. Doing the work is just too time consuming to skimp on the components and when you add things up the expensive panels you see in stores aren't bad at all (annoyingly, this seems to be true for most marine things).

I made my own panel because my space was too small, I wanted 8 switches, a lighter outlet, a gauge, and indicator LED's for everything in a small space. I had to make my own to do it. I bought all Blue-Sea stuff, including a $60 fuse/distribution block to go behind the panel.

That said I'll try to make another post tonight with some tips/parts. Blue-sea re-sells carling toggle switches and generally the electrical components can be had for cheaper if you want to look. Forget radio shack - think Digi-Key and McMaster.

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